# Merchant

**Responsibilities of a Merchant:**

* Minting & Redemption: Merchants initiate the creation and burning of Universal tokens.
* Liquidity Optimization: Provides assets where demand exists, reducing fragmentation.
* Market Execution: Facilitates cross-chain execution through intent-based fulfillment.

**Merchant Workflow:**

1. Merchant requests to mint uAssets, depositing collateral with the Custodian.
2. The Universal protocol verifies the request and mints the equivalent uAssets.
3. Merchants can then distribute uAssets to users on supported chains.
4. When users redeem uAssets, merchants initiate burn transactions, and collateral is released back to them.

{% hint style="info" %}
If you are interested in becoming a Merchant, please reach out to us via [partnerships](https://docs.universal.xyz/docs/developers/partnerships "mention").
{% endhint %}